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SB146, distributed resources plan — No

Changes the emphasis from lowest cost utility providers to planning the state electricity supply with renewable energy mandates from the Public Utilities Commission. Cost-benefit analysis is not limited to tangible factors, but includes every possible renewable ‘benefit’ one can dream up to try and narrow the cost differential chasm. In the meantime, the stability of the grid is of paramount importance and renewables are unsophisticated and under powered for providing steady, large-scale electricity. Inadequate battery storage technologies cannot begin to replace fossil fuels at present. The 170,000-panel Ivanpah installation adjacent to Interstate 15 at the California/Nevada border about 30 miles southwest of Las Vegas, has produced only 40% of its power projections and its continued operation is very much up in the air. In addition, Ivanpah killed 3,500 recorded migratory birds in its first year. Hopefully renewable generation and storage technology will improve at some point in the near future, but it has definitely not reached the mass adoption point. How much would it cost for Nevada to go to 100% renewables? No one in state government, including the Governor’s Office on Energy, has bothered to make this calculation of what all of us would pay for fear it will derail the single-minded push to foist this upon all of us and significantly raise our utility rates.